The 50-year-old escaped harm however was detained after his car clipped a truck
American golfer Tiger Woods. PHOTO: REUTERS
MIAMI:
Tiger Woods was arrested and charged with driving underneath the affect Friday after a rollover crash close to his Florida house, authorities mentioned, because the 15-time main champion’s golf profession veered into contemporary turmoil.
Woods, 50, escaped harm however was detained after his car clipped a truck whereas making an attempt to overhaul on a residential street on Jupiter Island, flipping onto its facet earlier than sliding to a cease.
Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek mentioned Woods — who was arrested for driving underneath the affect in 2017 — confirmed indicators of “impairment”, though he handed a breathalyzer take a look at.
“When it got here time for us to ask for a urinalysis take a look at, he refused, and so he is been charged with DUI, with property injury and refusal to undergo a lawful take a look at within the crash,” Budensiek mentioned.
In keeping with Florida DUI legal guidelines, Woods was detained on the county jail for eight hours and was photographed departing the ability in a automotive late Friday.
A reserving picture confirmed a red-eyed, stubbly-chinned Woods when he arrived on the jail about two hours after the crash.
Budensiek mentioned drug recognition consultants who examined Woods on the scene discovered the golfer “torpid” and believed he was impaired with “some type of medicine or drug.”
No medicine or medicine had been present in his car and since Woods refused the urine take a look at, his proper underneath Florida legislation, authorities “won’t ever get definitive outcomes as to what he was impaired on on the time of the crash,” Budensiek mentioned.
Â
‘Might have been worse’
Whereas neither Woods nor the driving force of the opposite car was injured, Budensiek mentioned the incident on the two-lane street “may have been loads worse.”
“Had any individual been transferring in the wrong way, we might not be having a dialog saying there was no accidents,” he mentioned.
Budensiek mentioned he did not know the way quick Woods was driving within the moments earlier than the crash.
He mentioned the driving force of the truck had slowed to make a flip, then tried to maneuver to the facet of the street when he noticed Woods’s fast-moving car making an attempt to overhaul him.
“Once I present you the images, they type of converse for themselves…you’ll be able to see that (Woods) slid for a good house earlier than he got here to a cease,” mentioned the sheriff, who mentioned that after the crash Woods climbed out of the passenger-side window of his Land Rover.
President Donald Trump expressed sympathy for Woods in remarks to reporters in Miami following the incident.
“He is bought some problem, there was an accident, and that is all I do know,” Trump mentioned. “Very shut pal of mine. He is an incredible individual, wonderful man, however, uh, some problem.”
Woods was arrested in Jupiter in 2017 after police discovered him asleep on the wheel of his broken automotive. Woods finally pleaded responsible to reckless driving and mentioned he had taken a mixture of painkillers.
5 years in the past Woods was concerned in a severe automotive crash in California that left him with extreme proper leg accidents that required pins inserted in his foot and ankle and a rod in his tibia in addition to a follow-up surgical procedure in 2023.
Woods returned from that crash on the 2022 Masters, the place he struggled to stroll all 4 rounds on the way in which to a Forty seventh-place end.
Woods, whose clean-cut picture was left in tatters after a 2009 intercourse scandal that upended his profession, has been working to return from an Achilles tendon rupture final March and again surgical procedure final October.
He competed earlier this week within the TGL simulator indoor golf league finals and had not dominated out enjoying in subsequent month’s Masters, the place his 5 victories embrace his first main title in 1997 and his most up-to-date in 2019.
“This physique … it would not recuperate prefer it did when it was 24, 25. It does not imply I am not attempting,” mentioned Woods, who final competed in a PGA Tour degree occasion on the 2024 British Open. “I hold attempting.”
